Best time to sleep, eat and even have SEX revealed – and it may surprise you

GETTY

Living by the clock is the best way to ensure a healthy lifestyle

Bedtime should be at 10.10pm – allowing for 20 minutes to get to sleep and 90 minutes of the most restorative sleep which is most likely to occur prior to midnight.

The ability to concentrate peaks about three hours after we wake up, so get the most taxing jobs of the day out of the way at 9.45am.

And with stress rates soaring at 10.45am, this is the time to take a break.

Related articles

The study pinpointed the weak moments when we were most likely to put on weight with a sugar rush.

Snack cravings happen most frequently at 3.30pm, when we are starting to lag at work, and 8.15pm when we are relaxing in front of the TV, so this is the best time to show willpower.

Wine O’clock, the best time for an alcoholic drink, is 6.10pm – four hours before we go to bed to maximise the time for liver recovery.

The researchers even defined the best time to have sex – 7.30am – as energy levels are high around 45 minutes after you wake up.

The survey asked 1,000 UK adults to log the optimum times when they got the maximum benefits out of range of daily activities.

GETTY

The ideal time to eat breakfast is about 7.15am

Based on the responses, researchers were able to come up with a daily time timetable to help the average person to live life to the maximum.

This included the ideal times to eat breakfast (7.15am), lunch (12.15pm) and dinner (6pm) to maximise weight loss.

Making small adjustments to your routine can really help

Lee Smith

The key to healthy eating was not to have an uneven calorie intake throughout the day, according to 72 per cent of respondents.

The study, by vitamin manufacturers Forza Supplements, also highlighted the optimum times of the day to work-out.

Around half of those who took part (54 per cent) found their calorie burn from running was highest with pre-breakfast run at around 7am.

Strength levels do build up during the day and 52 per cent of those who like to lift weights found they were most effective after work, with 6.30pm being the best time.

A key finding was that more than half (56 per cent) of people felt they were not getting the required eight hours of sleep a night, and this was impacting on their effectiveness throughout the day.

Most people’s body clocks are broadly similar, but there is scientific evidence to back up the minority who say thyey are not a morning person.

A person’s chronotype is the propensity for the individual to sleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period.

“Owls” (evening chronotypes) are more alert during the evening, while “larks” (morning chronotypes) are fresher in the morning.

10 foods to eat to live past 100

Tue, April 25, 2017

The TEN foods to eat to live past a hundred.

Getty

1 of 11

10 things to eat to live past 100

If you are a night person who rises later, researchers found they could simply adjust the timetable by how ever much later they woke up after they optimum time of 6.45am.

So if they woke at 8.45am, the rest of timetable was two hours later with a bedtime of just after midnight.

Lee Smith, mangaing director of the company, said: “What we set out to do was to find out the absolute optimum times to work, rest and play.

“While no two people are the same, these were found to be the very best times for the average person to do the key activities which make for a healthy and happy life.

“Making small adjustments to your routine can really help you to lose weight, get fitter, be more effective at work and even a better lover.”

GETTY

52 per cent of those who like to lift weights found they were most effective after work

12-POINT PLAN TO LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE:

1 6.45am – best time to wake-up, ideally after between seven and nine hours of sleep. You need more sleep up to the age of 18 (typically up to 10 hours for a young teen) but it is myth that we need less sleep as we get older.

2 7am – best time to go for a run – research shows that doing cardio-exercise in a fasted state (i.e. before breakfast) leads to a small increase in the amount of fat being burned.

3 7.15am – best time for breakfast – this should be around 30 minutes after waking. 84% of respondents in the Forza study said that sticking to defined meal times is the best way to lose weight.

4 7.30am – best time for sex – ideally around 45 minutes after waking to get over night-time grogginess and the rush of endorphins sparked by sex lowers blood pressure and stress levels.

5 9.45am – best time to work – research shows we reach our mental peak around three hours after waking. Your concentration, memory, focus and creativity should be best at this time of the day. Use this period to do that work that needs your best thinking, rather than

using it for other tasks.

6 10.45am – best time to relax – this is when our stress levels are at their highest, particularly early on in the week when to-do lists tend to be biggest.

GETTY

Bedtime should be at 10.10pm – allowing for 20 minutes to get to sleep

7 12.15pm – best time for lunch – this should be four hours after eating breakfast. Three-quarters of those surveyed found they benefited from never skipping a midday meal.

8 3.30pm – best time to show willpower – 39 per cent said mid-afternoon was when they were most likely to break a diet.

9 6pm – best time for dinner – the vast majority of dieters said key to successful weight loss was not to exceed your lunch-time calorie count at dinner – so you have even calorie intake throughout the day.

10 6.10pm – best time for a drink – this is known as Wine O’clock when we unwind after a long day at work. The key is not to leave it too late because your body needs at least four hours for your liver to recover from alcohol consumption before sleep.

11 6.30pm – best time to do weights – most studies find that strength is at a low point in the morning and gradually climbs until it tops in the early evening.

12 10.10pm – best time for bed – this allows us 20 minutes to get to sleep and then 90 minutes for the most restorative non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep which is best achieved before midnight.